Without Fail
by Infinite Inficio
Summary: The toughest part isn't when you fall, but getting back up. When you're the only ones left, can you really pick yourselves up? Koutarou, Akaba and Julie, rebuilding Bando Spiders, pieces by pieces. [Akaba x Koutarou x Julie]


_We'll become stronger. Next year… Bando Spiders will win with the kick game!_

Akaba, knowing that his team mate was shedding tears, held back his own, and with a newfound determination, agreed with Koutarou's proclamation.

_Yeah… yeah!_

_Without fail!_



That promise was made five months ago.

But carrying it out would be more than just a little bit difficult.



'American Football Club?'

Akaba strummed his guitar in reply.

'Feel the rhythmic beat of your heart speed up, as the excitement you get from when you first find out your true musical taste is brought back tenfold- like a guitar than has been tuned, like a-'

Before Akaba managed to start his allegory on a guitar that gained its true rhythm back, the used-to-be-interested first-year already ran off to the Music Club demonstration.

Well, at least they'll find their true rhythm there.

It was such a pity, though- he spent all of last night planning that allegory for the American Football Club demonstration. Akaba decided to go back to playing his darling guitar, before-

'_Whaat?_ You still have all of the registration forms left? That's not smart at all!'

Akaba looked up, and lowered his sunglasses.

'Koutarou,' he stated simply, and nodded, acknowledging the kicker's presence.

'If you're going to tell people all your weird musical tosh, nobody's gonna listen to you. At this rate, there won't be anyone smart enough to consider joining our club!'

Koutarou combed his hair, frowning, and put it back into his pocket right after he finished.

'Fuu…' Akaba sighed coolly, and pushed back his glasses to its original position. 'Even if you say that, you're not doing very well either.'

Koutarou, well aware that all of his forms were left, gritted his teeth, before exclaiming:

'Argh! You, Akaba, _you_ make me sick!'

'…'

'…' Koutarou stayed silent as well, waiting for his reply.

Akaba plucked one of the strings on his guitar.

'While I believe our musical tastes are not compatible at all, I'm afraid there's no one else I can ask. Tell me, Koutarou- does this sound odd to you?'

'What, your guitar or whatever you're talking about?'

Akaba stopped tuning his guitar for a moment.

'… Just as I thought- our rhythms-'

'WHO CARES? This is so unsmart… it's our last year and we haven't even recruited any new members!'

Koutarou noticed the can that was oh-so conveniently placed near his foot, and kicked it into the nearest rubbish bin out of frustration.

'Uoohhh look at that, Akaba! That was so smart!'

'Hmph.'

Koutarou ran towards the rubbish bin, toppled it over, and then put it back up again.

'_What_ are you doing?' Akaba questioned, and stopped tuning his guitar once more.

Koutarou proceeded to kick every single thing possible into the rubbish bin. 'I bet I can get every single one in!'

Akaba ignored whatever idiotic stunt Koutarou was pulling. He finally finished tuning his guitar, and played a short song on his guitar just to make sure.

Perfect! True rhythm always prevails in the end!

'Hmph,' he remarked proudly.

'Another one! Smart!' Koutarou complimented himself for the tenth time, after he managed to kick a bottle into the rubbish bin.

'… Koutarou,' Akaba called out.

'What?'

'You're embarrassing me.'

Angrily, Koutarou took out his comb, flicked it, ran it through his hair, and pointed it hostilely towards Akaba in five seconds.

'Who are _you_ to be embarrassed? I'm not the unsmart one who keeps talking about rhythms and taste of music! Where's Julie, anyway? That's not very smart of her, leaving just the two of us to promote the club.'

His foot made contact with the crumpled-up piece of paper, and-

'Fuu… She is going out…'

- Koutarou finally missed.

He immediately paid attention to his equally-eccentric team mate. 'With who?'

'… Her cousin. If you listened to her this morning, you would've-'

'WHAT?! You mean she's-'

'It's not _that_ kind of going out,' Akaba replied, annoyed. 'Plus, her cousin's a _girl_. You are messing up your own rhythm by being that paranoid. Chill out.'

'I was going to ask her out!' (_Again…_ Akaba thought) 'I bet this time, she won't be able to resist my charm, and give in-'

'That's what you always say,' Akaba commented. 'Your attempts so far have been far from successful.'

'But she never said no!'

'She never said yes.'

'Are you just trying to make my life miserable? Because if you are, that's not smart at all! It's not smart, is it?'

'No.'

'See, I am- Wait… You're agreeing with me?'

'No, I'm not trying to make your life miserable.'

'Oh. If that's- Okay, umm… well… Good! That's good!'

'…'

'I-I'm gonna give out the pamphlets now, if you don't mind… not that I care whether you mind or not!'

'…'

Koutarou stomped off, and Akaba could still hear his shouts of, "American Football! Smart!" and "Hey, you! How about joining a smart club for once?"

Akaba sighed.

'Idiot.'

For the first time that day, left his guitar behind to give out pamphlets along with his team mate.

'Join the American Football Club!'



'So… how many pamphlets did you guys give out?' Julie asked.

'All of them!' Koutarou announced proudly, and Akaba coolly nodded.

Well, it was mostly forcing them onto people's faces, but… same thing, right?

'How many registration forms were taken?'

'Fuu…'

_This isn't the time to say that!_ Koutarou thought, aggravated.

He gulped- he had repeatedly stomped on all the registration forms, before kicking them into the air, and Akaba looked like he had to stop himself from doing the same.

Nobody was interested enough to come back and take a registration form. The right thing to do would be to tell her the truth, but…

He didn't want to do an unsmart thing such as upsetting Julie!

_Oh no oh no oh no_.

'Hmm?'

'Umm…'

What should he say? Should he lie and stuff the registration forms down a few people's throats the next morning? Should he just tell her the truth?

'All of them,' Akaba answered.

'All of them?' Julie repeated, pleasantly surprised.

'All of them.'

Koutarou nodded hurriedly, and sent a glare towards Akaba, who brushed it off.

Even if he was relieved that he didn't have to be the one lying, he wasn't about to give up an opportunity to make Akaba feel bad.

Not that, any of his glares worked before…

Julie smiled proudly, and gave Koutarou a friendly pat on his back.

'I'm so glad that you guys managed to work together! All of the registration forms, on the first day? Wow!'

'Yeah, wow indeed,' Akaba muttered.

'See, Koutarou, if you at least _try_ to work together, it'll work out, right?'

'Yeah…. Yeah…' he finally managed to say, the words previously stuck in his throat.

Julie said something to Akaba that he couldn't quite register in his messed-up brain, and the red-haired boy nodded in reply.

'Yeah…'

He couldn't ask her out now. Not when she was utterly pleased at something that was completely untrue.

Koutarou laughed awkwardly.

_Akaba, you bastard!_



'Julie is going to kill me! If she finds out, she'll never say yes!'

Koutarou kicked the wall, just hard enough to relieve some of his frustration, but not so hard that it would hurt his foot.

Usually, he would've smiled at the thought of being one of the few smart enough kickers able to do that, but the situation was just too hectic for him to be able to be proud of his kicking skills.

Akaba took off his glasses, and put them in his pocket.

'Rather than worrying about her, it would be more beneficial for us to figure out a way to gain new members before next week's club meeting.'

'Yes! That's right! So smart! Go ahead and do it, Akaba!'

He resumed to running his comb through his hair.

'I said that _we_ should figure out a way. "_We_" includes me and you, Koutarou. We have to work together.'

Koutarou stopped.

'You? Me? _Together_? That's impossible!' he shouted disbelievingly. 'Thinking up such an unfeasible plan… that's not smart, man.'

'…' Akaba was displeased at Koutarou's reaction, and frowned. 'If you would like to suggest something else, that's fine by me.'

'Fine! We'll work together, if that will keep Julie from being upset with me!'

The slightest of smiles graced Akaba's face.

'Fuu…'

'Hey! Koutarou! Let's go home already!'

'Hah! You see that, Akaba? This is the first time she's asking me to walk her home! Usually, I have to be the one asking! By tomorrow, she wouldn't be able to turn me down!'

'You _always_ go home with her, without any of you asking, so I don't see what the big difference is.'

'But _she's_ the one asking me!'

'…' Akaba still didn't see what the big deal was- technically, Julie was only telling Koutarou to hurry up, but it didn't really suit his taste of music to delve to deeply into Koutarou's thoughts.

'Julie, wait! How about the times I've waited in front of your classroom? Hey!'

Akaba watched the two until Koutarou's yells were inaudible, before packing up his own belongings.

_You? Me? Together? That's impossible!_

'Impossible, huh,' Akaba muttered, as he zipped up his bag.

_I guess you're right, Koutarou._



'We're idiots! We're a bunch of unsmart idiots!'

'I never considered myself as one.'

'But the fact is that _we are_. You weren't acting very smart either! If you didn't lie to Julie, then it would all be over with a smack on the head and she would help us!'

'Fuu… If I didn't lie, then I wonder what you would've done…'

Koutarou gritted his teeth.

'I… I would've…'

Akaba looked up, waiting for an answer.

'I would've done something smart!'

Akaba had expected him to say that.

Koutarou regained his composure, and held his head high.

'Well… who cares? Now we have to get new members no matter what!'



'We're _never_ going to get new members, no matter what we do! God, this sucks! Not even that scrawny kid was interested!'

'Koutarou, have you ever considered the possibility that he didn't want to join _because_ he's scrawny?'

'But if he's so scrawny, he should've joined the club to improve his psychical capabilities! That would've been the smart thing to do!'

'Instead, he decided to join the Science club, and focus on his strength. That's the _intelligent_ thing to do.'

'Well… you coming back…'

'…'

'Was that the intelligent thing to do?' Koutarou challenged.

Akaba paused, before replying:

'Yes, it is.'



'So… how many signed up?'

'Seven,' Akaba replied.

'Wait… Seven… eight…' Koutarou said, pointing to himself, 'and… nine. We need two more.'

Koutarou stayed silent for a few seconds.

'This is so unsmart! _What if we don't have enough members for the Spring Tournament_?'

'…'

'We're not smart, Akaba! We're not smart at all!' Koutarou exclaimed with aggravation.

'…'

'But _wait_! We only need two more members, right? Besides, this is only our first day. It's not so hard, getting two more members!'

'Koutarou,' Akaba said with a straight face. 'Do you remember what I've told Julie?'

'That we… gave away… all of them?'

'And how many registration forms did we have in total?'

'… F-forty…'

'…'

'… So… does that mean…'

When it finally sank in:

'Akaba, you bastard!'


End file.
